Change of Heart
by Mnemosyne's Elegy
Summary: When Juvia changes herself yet again to win Gray over after the Games, he finally pulls her aside and explains that it isn't her looks standing in the way of their love. The truth hurts, but now she knows exactly what she needs to do for him to have a change of heart...maybe. This is NOT Gruvia.


The ballroom was _huge_ and practically dripping with opulence, and so were the well-dressed mages gathered there. The king and princess had truly gone all out in throwing the party in celebration of Fairy Tail's victory in the Games and, perhaps even more importantly, the defeat of the dragons afterward. The room, the feast, the clothing, the _people_—everything was sumptuous and dazzling.

But as impressive as everything was and as exciting as it was to be in a real palace for the first time, Juvia was only interested in one thing: Gray-sama.

She had spent hours agonizing over her wardrobe and hair, trying out all different dresses and hairstyles to find the magic combination that would win him over. She was _sure _that she had found it this time, and she was eager to show herself off.

Her face lit up with a beatific smile as she spotted her beloved by one of the buffet tables heaped with food. She was partial to seeing Gray-sama in far _less _clothing, but she had to admit that the princely outfit he had donned for the occasion was quite dashing. All she had to do was match him, and surely she had finally caught up with her newest makeover.

After taking a second to preen a little, she rushed over to him. "Gray-sama!"

He turned and sighed upon seeing her. "What's up, Juvia?"

She puffed out her chest in satisfaction and excitement, sure that it made her bosom heave prettily. "Juvia has become Juvia 2.0!"

He stared at her blankly. "Since when are you a machine?"

Juvia had been tweaking and refining herself since she had first met Gray-sama, creating new and more attractive versions of herself as she searched for the one that would win him over. So far he had been resistant to her attempts to woo him with this method, but she had high hopes that this would be her day.

"Juvia is entering a new era. She thinks Gray-sama will like her now!" A shadow passed over Gray-sama's face, but Juvia hardly noticed. She was too busy throwing her arms around him. "Gray-sama, Juvia loves you!"

Her arms closed on empty air, and she overbalanced and toppled over onto the ground in a dazed heap.

"I don't," Gray-sama said, eyes cool and unfriendly. He took another step out of her reach for good measure. "I'm also entering a new era. From now on, I'm honestly going to say no to things I don't like."

Juvia's transformation had failed yet again and for a moment she allowed herself to wallow in her disappointment, but then she jumped to her feet with a bright smile. "Gray-sama is so wonderful, even when he criticizes Juvia!"

Gray-sama inched back another step and shuddered. "Whoa, this new version is creepy."

Lyon gave him a disapproving look as he strolled past. "You shouldn't say that, Gray. How rude. Juvia-chan is not 'creepy'."

As much as Juvia would usually like the support, she was glad when Lyon moved on. He was nice enough, but his infatuation with her could be rather tiresome. Why did he keep calling her pet names and trying to win her over? Couldn't he see that she was in love with Gray-sama?

She sighed. "Juvia was so sure that Gray-sama would like this version better. What is it that Gray-sama wants from Juvia so that he loves her?"

Gray-sama froze. The irritation and disgust on his face melted away into something that was harder to read. Finally, he turned away and motioned for Juvia to follow.

"Here, let's talk outside."

Juvia's heart leaped with new hope as she rushed after him, skirts swirling prettily about her ankles. Gray-sama wanted to talk to her! In _private_!

He slipped out of the ballroom, away from all the people talking and laughing in their fancy clothes, and retreated a few paces down the empty hallway until they were out of sight of the doorway.

"What does Gray-sama want to tell Juvia?" Juvia clasped her hands together and stared at him with doe-eyed adoration as he turned back to face her.

"Juvia…" He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Why do you keep going through new 'versions' and changing your appearance?"

"Because Juvia is looking for what Gray-sama likes best, of course! What would he like better? Is the dress too much? Should Juvia try cutting her hair again?"

"…There's nothing wrong with your appearance, Juvia."

She frowned. "But then–"

"You're very pretty, and anyone who says otherwise doesn't have eyes in their head." The corners of Gray-sama's mouth were tugged downwards as his eyes hardened. Juvia was so busy celebrating the fact he'd called her pretty that she almost missed the darkening of his mood. "And anyone who is harassing women about their appearance and telling them they need to look a certain way to be loved is stupid and an asshole."

Juvia was stumped. "If Gray-sama finds Juvia's appearance pleasing, then why doesn't he love her?"

Gray-sama opened his mouth and closed it again. Something like sympathy crept into his eyes. "Love isn't based on looks," he said gently.

That wasn't an answer.

"Then what is it about Juvia that Gray-sama does not love?" Her face hardened into serious lines as Gray-sama opened his mouth to deflect her again. "Juvia would like a real answer."

He deflated. "Juvia… You stalk me and follow me around everywhere." His voice was gentle, but his eyes took on a hint of steel. "You have a shrine to me in your apartment that is, to be honest, extremely disturbing. You keep bothering me to go on dates and love you when I've already told you no. You can be very sweet and caring the rest of the time, but your obsession with me is toxic. You don't seem to realize that the more over-the-top you get with your affections, the more you push me away."

Oh. So it wasn't Juvia's appearance Gray-sama didn't like. It was just everything else.

Juvia sniffled and valiantly blinked back her tears. "Juvia just wants to show Gray-sama how much she loves him so that he will love her back."

Her tears seemed to make Gray-sama's voice take on an even gentler tone, as if he was trying to soothe an injured animal. "It's not bad to be determined, but there's a difference between dedication and obsession. It's one thing to not give up on winning someone over, but it's another to do that by continuing to hang off them every second of the day and force your affections on them when they've already told you no. You need to learn how to take a step back and respect me too. If I've asked you to stop, it's time to find a new strategy that isn't so abrasive."

"But–"

"You get annoyed by how Lyon is always getting in your face to try winning you over, right? Would you like it if he started following you around everywhere and constantly asking you out and built a shrine in his apartment where everything had your face on it?"

Juvia pulled a face. Lyon's affections were off-putting enough when she only saw him on occasion. "Juvia would not like that."

"But he loves you, doesn't he? So it must be okay, right?"

She considered that, but it still made her stomach squirm. "Juvia…guesses. But she would prefer if Lyon-san did not."

Gray-sama leaned forward and a sad smile played on his lips. "If you asked him to stop and he kept going, would it make you fall in love with him too?"

Juvia sucked in a breath and her lips trembled. She saw where this was going now, and she didn't like it. "Juvia…"

"He would only make you more and more uncomfortable," Gray-sama said quietly. "It wouldn't make you love him—it would only push you away."

Juvia felt like she was crumpling in on herself, and she wanted to put her hands over her ears to block the words out. All this time, all her attempts to make Gray-sama love her had been what was keeping him away? Had she really been sabotaging herself the whole time?

But then she sucked in a deep breath and pulled herself back together. She had never been a quitter. If Gray-sama was telling her exactly what the problem was, then wasn't this the perfect opportunity to fix it? She had been trying to change his heart with shallow changes to her outside appearance, but maybe what he was saying was that she would have to change something deeper inside herself if she wanted to win him over.

"If Juvia…" She took another steadying breath and forged on. "If Juvia could stop doing those things, would Gray-sama love her?"

His eyes were so sympathetic that it hurt. "I don't think so," he said. "I think it's too late for that now."

This time, the tears _did _break free and track down her face. "B-but–"

"But it _would _do something else. It wouldn't make me love you, but it would make it possible for us to really be friends. As it is now, I can't be nice to you or you think you're winning me over, and I don't feel like you really respect me or my feelings enough to understand me at all. But if you could take a step back and just focus on getting to know me instead of forcing me to love you, then maybe we could become friends. Okay?"

Juvia sniffed and scrubbed the tears off her face with her sleeve. "But is there a chance…?"

There was a long pause.

"…I suppose it's possible," Gray-sama said in a voice that said it wasn't. "Who knows? We could try being friends, and if something more grows from that, then so be it. But…don't get your hopes up, Juvia. I don't think it's going to happen. It's really not."

Juvia nodded. "Okay," she said in a small voice.

She could do this. Now that she knew some of the things she could work on to make him love her, Juvia 3.0 could be born. A Juvia to be 'friends' so that she could work on changing Gray-sama's heart that way. She could do as he asked and start small before swooping in to win him over.

Juvia 3.0 smiled brightly, prepared to embark on her new mission, and shoved aside the tiny voice in the back of her head saying that no matter how much she changed herself, Gray-sama meant it when he said that he was not going to have a change of heart.

* * *

**Note: I wrote this a long time ago and originally intended to end with a glimmer of hope or redemption for Juvia, but I remember not being able to swing it. She's honestly so hopeless.**

**emmahoshi: Oh yeah, the parallel with Lyon is too good to pass up. Definitely highlights Juvia's hypocrisy. Yeah... I don't actually think Juvia 3.0 is a good thing. I mean, she'd at least be easier to deal with, but look at her reasoning. She's literally doing this as another ploy to get Gray to fall in love with her when he's repeatedly asked her to stop with her games (he really should not have backed down and softened the blow at the last second, but that's a bad habit of his), not to try respecting his wishes and being friends with him. She hasn't learned anything or tried to be more respectful of him at all, she's just being a different brand of manipulative :/ And she probably doesn't even realize it. She needs to work on her self-esteem and stop trying to change herself for someone else. If he can't love her for who she is, then she needs to move on and find someone who will. That would be the most respectful thing for both herself and Gray, but she's not the sharpest tool in the shed. [EDIT: You are sooo right. And, like, there's a difference between not giving up on an unrequited love and totally disregarding the other person's feelings or lack thereof. You're allowed to hope if you aren't interfering with the other person's life, but you don't have the right to keep throwing yourself at them when they've made it obvious they're uncomfortable. I had someone at work who kept flirting with me even after I told him I was uncomfortable (and he had the nerve to tell me that I just didn't get his sense of humor, said he'd tone it back because he didn't want to make me uncomfortable, and turned around and kept on doing the same thing the next day—no, you aren't funny, just an asshole lol), and then one day he called me "kitten" and that was that and I never let him get a word in edgewise again lol It made me really uncomfortable and angry that he didn't respect my feelings at all, and that was only flirting. Imagine how worse more Juvia-like tactics would make it. No one has the right to do that to someone else, and it makes me so angry to see it romanticized in fiction because it's like people are trying to justify it in real life. I should be allowed to work and play and love without being made to feel uncomfortable. I should be allowed to have a safe space. I have as much a right to the world as anybody, and it's ridiculous how many people have to deal with that shit. Especially women, but men too. I don't think it's any better to have a woman doing it to a man, so I don't think Juvia's bullshit is cute. /end rant lol]**


End file.
